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Modi’s Surgical Strike On Hospitals! Govt To Take Down Hospitals Overcharging For Stent Replacement

The government has expanded its operations for cracking down the hospitals which are selling stents at overpriced rates. The state-level drug controllers have been instructed to check the inventories while fake patients can also be sent to know the true position of hospitals and insurers will also play a role in checking compliance.
Just a day back, TOI published a report which stated that the city hospitals are withdrawing the high-end stents in order to avoid price control. Acting on the report, on Friday, FDA carried out an unofficial survey regarding the pricing of stent at hospitals and their availability.
Ananth Kumar, the Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, was in Mumbai on Friday and he warned the hospitals and clinics which overcharge the patients as he said,
“If we come across any such incident, we will first send a notice to the hospital and then follow it up with criminal prosecution. We won’t hesitate to shut down the hospital if there is evidence of profiteering.”
On Friday, the patients were not able to get the new third and fourth generation stents and the reason given was that they needed to be relabeled with new prices; however National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) stated it as non-compulsory.
FDA’s acting joint commissioner for Greater Mumbai, Vinita Thomas, stated,
“We have contacted the local distributors and all major hospitals of the city. They told us that the ones that have been taken away are way too expensive to be offered at the price range fixed by the government. While the stakeholders are working out some solutions with the government, we will keep a check on hospitals and ensure that there is no overcharging in the meantime.”
What’s more, she also assured that there is no shortage of stents.
Majority of the hospitals have told TOI that new pricing for stents has been implemented but some sources from the industry have revealed that there is going to be an increase of 15%-25% in the cardiac packages. A senior administrator of one of the leading hospital said,
“Everybody is watching what the others are doing. But costs of hospitalisation, OT, consumables and other elements in an angioplasty package will see a surge.”

As of now, the cardiac packages are around Rs 1.5-2.5 lakh and increase in the cost will depend upon the number of stents used. As per a former director of a private hospital in Patna which is a part of a national chain, Rs. 90, 000 was charged for stent and same amount was charged for the procedure, bringing the total to Rs. 1.8 lakh but as now the cost of stent has decreased, the price of procedure will increase.
However Synergy, Alpine, Absorb and other manufacturers and distributors of high-end stents have made it clear to FDA officers that new and latest stents can’t be made available within the price limit of Rs. 30,000 that has been fixed by NPPA. Many of the latest stents have already been removed from the hospital, citing the reason of relabeling and first and second generation stents have been provided in exchange of them. However, FDA has warned against creating a shortage.
Dr A V Ganesh Kumar from LH Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, said that second-generations stents are getting used now as procedures can’t be delayed. He talked about the dissimilarity between generations of stents,
“Previous stents had a thickness of 140 microns that sometimes found it difficult to trudge across thick blockages. The thickness of newer versions is almost half, making them easy to bend and manoeuvre.”
He also told that some of the second generation stents which were taken for relabeling have been sent back but those of third and fourth generation haven’t come back.

The spokesperson of Abbott, which is a leading player, said,
“Abbott continues to market our full range of coronary stents available in India. In certain cases, we initiated the process of relabeling to comply with the revised pricing notified by the government order of Feb 13.”
The company also told that they have asked the distributors to make bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) available, which gets dissolve in the body, at the maximum prices. But a majority of the doctors have maintained that BVS was not available.

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